| Sep 05 2008 |
Word from inside ImaginAsian TV is that there has been another round of lay-offs as of a few weeks ago. If they keep going at this rate, eventually there'll be no one left to turn out the lights. The company keeps on trucking, however, with a theater in NYC (now operated by Adlabs) a theater in LA and a TV channel, and they've got a new CEO. Adam Ware, formerly of Fox, UPN and the USA networks who was brought on board after previous CEO Mike Hong stepped down. His mandate is to make IATV all about Asian pop culture. As he says:
"Asian Pop is on the cutting edge of American youth culture and new media. I've wanted to jump head first into the space for a long time and IA offers the perfect foundation for the next step of my career."
To celebrate Mr. Ware coming on, Comcast dropped IATV from their San Francisco market citing low viewership. But IATV soldiers forward, with lots of new and original programming, including Tuesday night's "Chix Kix Flix":
"Chix Kix Flix features three sexy girls hosting a new fun-filled kung fu movie every week. With their random comedy skits and interactions with the featured movie, these girls kick their way onscreen, putting a whole new spin on what a kung fu movie is supposed to be."
Shooting of the segments starts on September 8 for the September 25 premiere of the show, but who's going to hold the camera? Is there anyone even in the offices anymore?
The last of the scheduled DVDs to be released this year by Genius Entertainment as part of IATV's deal with the Weinstein Company has hit shelves and it's the very worthy Japanese flick CANARY. Whether or not there'll be any more movies to come, who knows? In the meantime, you can buy it here.
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The moronic 12 year old boy who thought this show up gets to hold the camera.
They try to be all things to all people with a wide array of programming that hopes to be relevant every hour of the day. This is not only an impossible task in the 1000 channel universe it's a foolish and often expensive one. ImaginAsian fell into this trap. It's not really anyone's fault per say and you can't really pin it on any one event or decision.
Back in May we embarked on a very aggressive agenda to bring focus to the network and our efforts. If we were in the aviation industry it would be like trying to convert TWA into Virgin Atlantic...in just three months no less. We must have been nuts to try and do this.
The reality is that we had to embark on this path. We had very little choice because if we hadn't IATV would have gone the way of AZN. And that would be the end of trying to build a true network for today's Asia America. We had to go through a challenging transition with lots of risk.
Obviously we didn't plan for the worldwide credit crisis of late and so we have had to adjust more quickly than perhaps we would have liked...just like everyone else has.
Employees that had given 110% had to be let go over the last few weeks and our hope is that one day in the very near future we can hire those folks back. But, when we do it will be as a new, focused and financially viable company.
By the way....the IATV team was amazing. In just three short months they have transformed the network's look and schedule. Gone is the old bubble logo and program line up that got us into trouble in the first place. Today we have a new focus, new plan and schedule that is just starting to tap into the potential of the Asian American media market.
Stay tuned and please email me at aware@iatv.tv with any comments.
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